Evan Rachel Wood has revealed that the second season of Westworld has eerie similarities to the #MeToo movement, insisting that the show as a whole “is a metaphor for the oppressed and any minority or group that has been oppressed and then abused by power.”
I spoke to the 30-year-old actress, who won a Critics’ Choice Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe and Emmy Award for her performance as Dolores Abernathy in the first season, about her turn in “Allure” earlier this month.
Towards the end of discussion the conversation turned to the upcoming season of “Westworld,” which was when Wood opened up about its “eerie” similarities to recent events in society.
“It was eerie how life was imitating art when we were filming season 2 because that is when the #MeToo movement was happening. And season 2 is very much about the reckoning. We’re like, ‘Hey! You thought you were going to get away with this forever.’ But everyone has their limits.”
“And I think much like the hosts in ‘Westworld’ we’re seeing that same kind of response in our society right now, and people are questioning and asking why.”
Wood also admitted that “Westworld” season 2 taps into the current struggle of knowing the difference between real and fake news.
“We are fed so much information that we don’t know whether it is true, false, or somewhere in the middle. So we get conditioned very quickly. And we are not as in control of ourselves as we think.”
“A lot of that comes from our environment and our society and us being fed subliminal messages, and we don’t even realize that we have been fed a story that we have just accepted, and aren’t just living our lives by it, but killing for it. That it could all be a lie.”
“I love that with ‘Westworld’ we are able to touch upon these questions and really relevant topics through science fiction. Which is what the genre has to do.”
“I love that it can be a metaphor for so many things. It is all a commentary of where we are now. Yes, there’s violence and there’s guns in it. But we didn’t create those things. They are part of human nature right now.”
“I love that we use the hosts as a vehicle to look at ourselves objectively, and ask ourselves, ‘Why are we obsessed with guns? Why are we obsessed with violence? Why do we get pleasure out of playing the villain?’ To me, everyone is a black hat. And if they say they’re not they’re lying.”
“Westworld’s” treatment of such subjects has helped to make it one of the most popular shows on television. Wood counts herself as one of its biggest fans, and she even went into detail about just how obsessed she gets with “Westworld,” before declaring that no-one will be able to guess how its second season unfolds.
“I am just obsessed with how brilliant the writers are. I am the one on set that is trying to figure everything out, and looking into every metaphor and reference and clue that I can try to piece together.”
“But I think with season 2 it is impossible to guess the surprises. Your brain will just not go there. They have taken it so far.”
“Westworld” season 2 premieres on HBO on April 22 at 9pm EST.
